In Memory
by darkestboy
Summary: The Doctor, Jo, Sarah Jane and certain members of UNIT remember the Brigadier as Luke, Clyde, Rani and Sky discuss friendships on Christmas Day. Set after The Man Who Never Was.


**Name: **In Memory  
**Characters:** 11th Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith, Jo Grant, Liz Shaw, Sergeant Benton, Mike Yates, Luke Smith, Sky Smith, Clyde Langer and Rani Chandra.  
**Synopsis: **The Doctor, Jo, Sarah Jane and certain members of UNIT remember the Brigadier as Luke, Clyde, Rani and Sky discuss friendships on Christmas Day. Set after _The Man Who Never Was_.

During her few months on Earth, Sky Smith had experienced many wonders but the wonder of Christmas was something else. A time of year when presents were exchanged and also one of the few times that not only she spent with her mother, older brother and her friends, Clyde Langer and Rani Chandra but also one where many people had shown up to the house that Christmas Day, including a man in blue box wearing a bowtie that he deemed as cool.

"So are bowties cool or what then?" Sky asked as she stared at the blue box that had been parked in the back garden, a back garden that was also seeped in thick, gorgeous white snow as well.

"Not really, Sparky," Clyde said with a cheeky smile. Sky had grown used to the nickname that Clyde had given her, knowing that it came from a place of fondness rather than ridicule. "But that doesn't stop the Doctor from believing so."

"So, what's he a doctor of?" Sky placed her hand on the TARDIS as it began to dematerialise out of the garden. "Woah! Can they all do that?"

"Well, sort of," Rani replied, stepping in. "The Doctor's not quite human as you'd put it. I mean looks like one of us but he isn't."

"Like me?" Sky asked brightly, before looking at Luke. "Or you?"

"Well, he's certainly as clever as Lukey boy," Clyde replied quickly. "That's for sure."

"Maybe more so," Luke admitted cautiously. "He's one of Mum's oldest friends and he doesn't always look the same. He's kind of like -,"

"- An alien chameleon." Clyde jumped before getting a look from both Luke and Rani. "There are worse comparisons, you know."

"Maybe," Luke said in a soft tone. "But I wonder where they've gone to."

"I'm sure we'll find out when they return," Sky said brightly. "Won't we?"

The Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith had said nothing to each other in the TARDIS. It's not that they didn't know what to say to each other, it had been more that silence seemed to be the preferred option with the both of them but eventually one of them had to give in and broke the silence in the time machine.

"If I had known earlier," the Doctor said softly, looking into Sarah Jane's eyes, reaching out to hold her hand.

"I know, Doctor," Sarah Jane smiled, taking his hand. "None of us were expecting it. Not him."

"I thought he'd outlive us all," the Doctor admitted. "Even me."

"I think we've landed." Sarah Jane recognised the familiar sound of the TARDIS dematerialising onto solid ground. "Where have we landed?"

The Doctor went silent again and walked towards the doors, opening them. Sarah Jane stepped out of the TARDIS and then, she knew exactly where the time machine had landed.

"You made it then," the voice of the man she knew as Sergeant Benton called out, though he liked to be called John nowadays. He didn't waste time in giving Sarah Jane a hug. "You haven't aged a day."

"And you haven't changed either," Sarah Jane replied, breaking the hug. "Still, the same charmer I knew from way back when."

"He's changed though." The voice belonged to Mike Yates, who spotted the Doctor stepping out of the TARDIS and locking it behind him. "It's you again, isn't it?"

"Hello Mike," the Doctor said as he looked at the faces that surrounded the grave of Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. "Everyone."

"Doctor." Liz Shaw stepped out from the crowd and shook his hand. "It's been a while. I only wish the circumstances that I was meeting you under were better than this."

"So do I." The Doctor nodded in agreement, before smiling at an older blonde woman. "Hello Jo."

"Maybe one day," Liz said slowly, taking in the look of her Doctor. He might have looked physically younger but Liz could see in his eyes that he was older. There was no mistaking it.

"Hello Doctor." Jo slowly came towards him, darting a smile at Sarah Jane before embracing the Doctor in a hug. "It's been a while."

"No grandson with you?" The Doctor remembered from his last encounter with Jo that she was with a young man named Santiago.

"He's in Peru with his parents for Christmas," Jo said. "They've invited Cliff and I for New Year's Day. I said I'd do my best to make it. I only heard about the Brigadier a couple of weeks ago myself from Sarah Jane."

"I only found out myself when I phoned the nursing home," the Doctor said sheepishly. "I've been a bit distracted lately, somewhat more than usual. I wanted to do something for Alistair. I thought this would be best."

"Well, I think he would've liked this, Doctor," Jo smiled at her former mentor while looking at the grave of one of her dearest friends. "All of us together one more time. Just like the good day."

"Not all of us." Sarah Jane interrupted as Benton and Yates were talking to Liz and each other. She looked at both the Doctor and Jo. "Harry's not here either."

"I know," the Doctor replied softly as he put his hand over Sarah Jane's shoulder. "But we are and the Brigadier, he wouldn't want us all to be maudlin."

"No, he'd want us to celebrate his legacy," Benton said as he entered the competition. "So I think the best thing we can all do, Doctor is get in that TARDIS of yours and go for a drink and toast to him. That's what he would want the most."

"You know, Benton, I think you're absolutely right." The Doctor smiled back at the former sergeant before addressing everyone at the graveyard. "Right, everyone in the TARDIS. We're going to celebrate the Brigadier."

As the Doctor opened the door of his time machine and Benton, Jo, Yates and Liz all stepped inside with succession to get away from the biting cold. Sarah Jane was halfway from entering the TARDIS when she noticed the Doctor staring at the Brigadier's grave.

"Coming?" Sarah Jane asked, looking at the man and remembering a conversation she had recently been a part of.

Since the Doctor had re-entered her life during the debacle with the Krillitane, Sarah Jane knew of nearly every other companion the Doctor had travelled with ever since. She had met Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith and Martha Smith-Jones as well as Jack Harkness and Donna Noble and was vaguely aware of the mysterious River Song but she also had recently been contacted by Amy Pond and Rory Williams and she knew that one of the last conversations the Doctor had with Amy had been about his own fears of the girl perishing the long she stayed in his company. Even though Sarah Jane knew the Doctor wasn't responsible, she also guessed that looking at the Brigadier's grave seemed to confirm those sorts of fears for him. Without thinking about it, she stepped out from the TARDIS and placed her hand into the Doctor's and smiled at him.

"Come with me, Doctor." Sarah Jane looked at the Time Lord. "Come with me and celebrate his life. Remember him like you intended to."

"When you put it like that Sarah Jane," the Doctor smiled at his former companion. "How can I refuse?"

The Doctor stepped inside the TARDIS with Sarah Jane and closed the doors, behind. As the machine materialised from the grave, more snow seemed to fall and a voice echoed in the wind.

_Five rounds rapid._

- The End -


End file.
